Ramesh D (43) had clocked three satisfying years at Satyam. “Satyam was a great place to be. It did not run like a family enterprise, but like a professionally managed company. And the brand had huge equity across Andhra Pradesh – something like what Infosys enjoys in Karnataka,” he says.
So like everyone else, when Ramesh heard of the Maytas acquisition, he was surprised, but dismissed it. It was only when the scam of Rs 8,000 crore unfolded (latest figures estimate the scam at Rs 14,000 crore), that Ramesh was left spellbound. “It was January 7, it was my wife’s birthday. Over the past one year, I have moved from shock to anger and later to reconciliation and now, hope,” he recalls.
He saw hundreds of employees being asked to leave and others left, as and when they got their hands on other offers. Ramesh too has been waiting for the right opportunity.
While Ramalinga Raju, PwC and the investors of Satyam got maximum attention last year, it was the employees of Satyam who were left in the lurch. Last December, the economic slowdown hit India Inc in full force and pink slips were flying faster than recession. Within minutes of the scam hitting headline, resumes of Satyam employees were flooding the market, but they had nowhere to go.
Vinay A (24), for instance, who had joined Satyam’s Bangalore office straight after engineering, managed an opening in a Kenyan firm. “Office was not running as usual. Our bosses would tell us to calm down and focus, but there was no way it could happen. And when it was all over the media, it became humiliating to even enter the office,” he recalls. “I was lucky to have got a break. There were so many who had nowhere to go and were worried because they had families and personal commitments.”
HR experts believe that it was the recession that saved the day for Satyam. “Had the news broken when the economy was on a boom, the company would’ve gone bust overnight, since everyone would’ve found jobs elsewhere,” says BS Murthy, CEO of Leadership Capital, an executive search firm. “Ever since signs of recovery became visible, the firm has seen 18 to 20 per cent attrition,” he adds.
Ramesh couldn’t agree more: “People in technical roles have already begun leaving. But it’s only in the new fiscal that people from areas like HR, finance, administration and facilities will start moving out.”
(Names of employees have been changed on request.)
Source: mydigitalfc
Thursday, December 17, 2009
IT market
Hiring mails are the latest spam
Hackers are now increasingly using the new buzzword – Twitter – to dupe internet users. In the last month, security solutions firms have found new job spam messages that use Twitter as its tool to expand, which in turn entices the user to click the URL to view the details of the bogus opportunities.
For instance, spam messages containing Twitter URLs, had subjects like N3 Earn Extra Income! One of the spam messages doing the rounds says — “Have you heard about Google taking in workers online? I read it at ajobwithgoogle.com Very Interesting!” Yet another one says — “US Surveys is looking for the position of a social shopper”.
“While job-related spam has been prevalent since the recession, Twitter is now being used to lure internet users. These spam emails talk about part-time jobs from big brands,” said Abhinav Karnwal, product marketing manager – APEC, Trend Micro.
Victims are usually offered an amazing job and money, with or without experience. Sometimes they look for a money mule, where they’ll launder stolen money through your account, giving you a percentage. Sometimes, they promise to pay your salary into your account, but transfer money out instead, said Roger Thompson, AVG's chief research officer. They also lure potential money mules to help transfer money by convincing them that they are genuine jobs.
Symantec’s Shantanu Ghosh, VP – India product operations, Symantec, says a large number of Twitter accounts are being used and they seem to be a mixture of hijacked accounts (quite old, and have genuine looking updates) and false accounts set up purely for the purpose of spamming.
Incidentally, India has jumped to the third position in terms of spam volume in 2009. According to Cisco’s annual security report, the country saw spam messages of 3.6 trillion in 2009, 130.4 per cent rise over 2008’s 1.6 trillion.
For instance, spam messages containing Twitter URLs, had subjects like N3 Earn Extra Income! One of the spam messages doing the rounds says — “Have you heard about Google taking in workers online? I read it at ajobwithgoogle.com Very Interesting!” Yet another one says — “US Surveys is looking for the position of a social shopper”.
“While job-related spam has been prevalent since the recession, Twitter is now being used to lure internet users. These spam emails talk about part-time jobs from big brands,” said Abhinav Karnwal, product marketing manager – APEC, Trend Micro.
Victims are usually offered an amazing job and money, with or without experience. Sometimes they look for a money mule, where they’ll launder stolen money through your account, giving you a percentage. Sometimes, they promise to pay your salary into your account, but transfer money out instead, said Roger Thompson, AVG's chief research officer. They also lure potential money mules to help transfer money by convincing them that they are genuine jobs.
Symantec’s Shantanu Ghosh, VP – India product operations, Symantec, says a large number of Twitter accounts are being used and they seem to be a mixture of hijacked accounts (quite old, and have genuine looking updates) and false accounts set up purely for the purpose of spamming.
Incidentally, India has jumped to the third position in terms of spam volume in 2009. According to Cisco’s annual security report, the country saw spam messages of 3.6 trillion in 2009, 130.4 per cent rise over 2008’s 1.6 trillion.
IT market, Wipro
Wipro ties up with Ariba Inc
IT major Wipro on Tuesday announced its partnership with Ariba Inc, a leading spend management solutions provider, to help companies
across India accelerate their spend management initiatives and the results that they deliver.
Under the terms of a newly formed alliance, Wipro will leverage Ariba's on-demand sourcing solutions to help its clients drive procurement process efficiencies and savings that positively impact their bottom line, a release said.
"The economic crisis has taught us lot of things, the most common of them being that companies must procure goods and services for less", said Ramakrishnan R, vice president and Global Practice Head, Wipro Consulting Services.
"By joining forces with Ariba, we can help companies mature their procurement processes in ways that create superior financial impact for their organisations", he said.
Wipro will leverage Ariba sourcing on-demand to expand on the strategic cost containment services that it provides to clients and deliver sourcing services through which companies can effectively lower their costs on a wide range of goods and services.
across India accelerate their spend management initiatives and the results that they deliver.
Under the terms of a newly formed alliance, Wipro will leverage Ariba's on-demand sourcing solutions to help its clients drive procurement process efficiencies and savings that positively impact their bottom line, a release said.
"The economic crisis has taught us lot of things, the most common of them being that companies must procure goods and services for less", said Ramakrishnan R, vice president and Global Practice Head, Wipro Consulting Services.
"By joining forces with Ariba, we can help companies mature their procurement processes in ways that create superior financial impact for their organisations", he said.
Wipro will leverage Ariba sourcing on-demand to expand on the strategic cost containment services that it provides to clients and deliver sourcing services through which companies can effectively lower their costs on a wide range of goods and services.
Recession
ArcelorMittal could cut 10,000 jobs: Report
ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, could cut 10,000 jobs worldwide next year to boost productivity and reduce general expenses by around $500 million, French newspaper Les Echos said on Monday.
The company, which currently employs 285,300 people, wants to regain lost market share and has a goal for general expenses to account for less than 3.5 percent of revenue, the paper said, citing trade union representatives who attended a European workers committee meeting on Dec. 9 to 10.
ArcelorMittal said in an e-mailed statement it did not want to comment on the figures mentioned in the report as they were not final.
"During ArcelorMittal's plenary meeting with its European Works Council last week, company representatives discussed the possibility that the business could expect some global workforce reductions next year due mainly to natural attrition and optimization of production," the statement said.
The company has already moved to slash thousands of jobs earlier this year, amid the steel space suffering the impact of the global economic downturn.
The company, which currently employs 285,300 people, wants to regain lost market share and has a goal for general expenses to account for less than 3.5 percent of revenue, the paper said, citing trade union representatives who attended a European workers committee meeting on Dec. 9 to 10.
ArcelorMittal said in an e-mailed statement it did not want to comment on the figures mentioned in the report as they were not final.
"During ArcelorMittal's plenary meeting with its European Works Council last week, company representatives discussed the possibility that the business could expect some global workforce reductions next year due mainly to natural attrition and optimization of production," the statement said.
The company has already moved to slash thousands of jobs earlier this year, amid the steel space suffering the impact of the global economic downturn.
IT market, new openings
Hiring up by 8.38 pc in Bangalore
Hiring activity continued to surge in the country's IT capital with the job index moving from 598 in October to 649 in November 2009, up by 8.38 per cent.
Prominent industries in Bangalore which witnessed a rise in hiring activity include IT and ITES. The IT industry overall saw an increase in hiring activity in November 2009 by 5.35 per cent,, Naukri JobSpeak, the monthly job index released by job portal Naukri.com, said.
Hiring for IT professionals is 'back' after the dip in October 2009 with an increase of 7.8 per cent and 21.8 per cent in the index of IT-Software and IT-Hardware professionals in November'09 compared to the previous month, it said.
Prominent industries in Bangalore which witnessed a rise in hiring activity include IT and ITES. The IT industry overall saw an increase in hiring activity in November 2009 by 5.35 per cent,, Naukri JobSpeak, the monthly job index released by job portal Naukri.com, said.
Hiring for IT professionals is 'back' after the dip in October 2009 with an increase of 7.8 per cent and 21.8 per cent in the index of IT-Software and IT-Hardware professionals in November'09 compared to the previous month, it said.
Outsourcing
Shell transferring thousands of jobs to India, Philippines
In order to reduce costs, global oil major Royal Dutch Shell will soon transfer additional office jobs from Houston and elsewhere to India and the Philippines.
Shell has also announced that it would slash 5,000 jobs by year-end , including hundreds in Houston as part of a sweeping reorganisation new CEO Peter Voser said is needed to make the company more competitive.
According to internal Shell documents, the European oil giant has been transferring additional office jobs from Houston and elsewhere to India and the Philippines to reduce costs. The migration programmes affect employees in finance and other support functions, which are being consolidated in shared service centres in low-cost countries to fit the new company structure.
It’s unclear how many of Shell’s 13,000 employees in Houston will be affected by the migration plans. Partly, that’s because company officials are still deciding which jobs will stay or go abroad, and are rolling out the plans in phases that run into next year. But at least a few divisions in Houston are preparing to be downsized dramatically.
Major oil companies including Shell, ConocoPhillips and BP have been cutting jobs, capital spending budgets and other costs in response to the global economic downturn that has sapped demand for petroleum products like gasoline and diesel fuel. But Shell’s migration programmes could have broader implications for Houston .
Shell, which is based in The Hague, with US headquarters in Houston, has been involved in a major downsizing since Voser replaced Jeroen van der Veer as CEO in July. By year end, the company plans to cut 5,000 employees, or 10% of its global workforce, under a reorganisation he calls Transition 2009.
The process which merged the company’s three upstream businesses into two, expanded its downstream group and added a new projects and technology division trimmed management ranks by 20% and has forced 15,000 Shell employees to reapply for a smaller pool of jobs.
The company recently told employees within its finance division that some of their jobs are being relocated from Houston and Calgary, Alberta, to finance operations centre in Manila and Chennai. Spokesman Bill Tanner said foreign shared service centres are key to improving the finance unit’s competitiveness.
Shell has also announced that it would slash 5,000 jobs by year-end , including hundreds in Houston as part of a sweeping reorganisation new CEO Peter Voser said is needed to make the company more competitive.
According to internal Shell documents, the European oil giant has been transferring additional office jobs from Houston and elsewhere to India and the Philippines to reduce costs. The migration programmes affect employees in finance and other support functions, which are being consolidated in shared service centres in low-cost countries to fit the new company structure.
It’s unclear how many of Shell’s 13,000 employees in Houston will be affected by the migration plans. Partly, that’s because company officials are still deciding which jobs will stay or go abroad, and are rolling out the plans in phases that run into next year. But at least a few divisions in Houston are preparing to be downsized dramatically.
Major oil companies including Shell, ConocoPhillips and BP have been cutting jobs, capital spending budgets and other costs in response to the global economic downturn that has sapped demand for petroleum products like gasoline and diesel fuel. But Shell’s migration programmes could have broader implications for Houston .
Shell, which is based in The Hague, with US headquarters in Houston, has been involved in a major downsizing since Voser replaced Jeroen van der Veer as CEO in July. By year end, the company plans to cut 5,000 employees, or 10% of its global workforce, under a reorganisation he calls Transition 2009.
The process which merged the company’s three upstream businesses into two, expanded its downstream group and added a new projects and technology division trimmed management ranks by 20% and has forced 15,000 Shell employees to reapply for a smaller pool of jobs.
The company recently told employees within its finance division that some of their jobs are being relocated from Houston and Calgary, Alberta, to finance operations centre in Manila and Chennai. Spokesman Bill Tanner said foreign shared service centres are key to improving the finance unit’s competitiveness.
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